Propane tank's fumes ignite

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Dozens of fire engines and a helicopter were sent to fight blazes after residual fumes from a 300-gallon propane tank caught fire Thursday afternoon in Golden Hill. Nearby residents had to be evacuated, but no one was injured in the incident. (Peggy Peattie / Union-Tribune)

Dozens of fire engines and a helicopter were sent to fight blazes after residual fumes from a 300-gallon propane tank caught fire Thursday afternoon in Golden Hill. Nearby residents had to be evacuated, but no one was injured in the incident. (Peggy Peattie / Union-Tribune) (/)

Residual fumes caught fire when a forklift was being refueled by a 300-gallon propane tank yesterday afternoon, significantly damaging a business, charring vegetation and prompting the evacuation of dozens of residents in the Golden Hill neighborhood of San Diego.

Authorities said no one was hurt by the fiery fumes, which were ignited by an unknown source. Vented propane that went into the air also caught fire and spread to a building and nearby vegetation in front of a business on Delevan Drive near a canyon east of 34th Street about 4:15 p.m.

The tank had been used frequently to provide fuel for vehicles and forklifts that belonged to John Lenore & Co., a beverage distributor on Delevan Drive. Two forklifts were destroyed in the fire. The blaze caused $200,000 in damage to a distributor's warehouse, but no one was hurt.

Dozens of fire engines were sent to fight the blaze. The first crews found the tank engulfed in flames that shot as high as a billboard.

Those firefighters were not able to extinguish the fire right away because there was a potential for an explosion, said Deputy Chief Perry Peake of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. They let the fire burn until it was safe for them to put it out. Meanwhile, other crews were sent to put out flames that had spread to the beverage distributor's warehouse.

As firefighters made sure the fire from the propane tank didn't spread further and extinguished the flames at the business, other crews positioned themselves behind the Golden Hill Subacute and Rehabilitation Center on 34th Street to fight the vegetation fire from above the hillside and protect the homes above the canyon.

Residents along 34th Street, between A Street and Delevan Drive, whose homes faced east toward the canyon were told to evacuate as a precaution, police said.

Simon Sarkisian, who had to leave his condominium, said he heard “a deep rumble and felt the house shake.”

Sarkisian, 43, said his first thought was that an earthquake had struck. Then he said he heard an explosion.

He walked to his patio to see a plume of thick, black smoke that billowed above the freeway.

The southbound lanes of nearby state Route 15 were briefly closed at Interstate 805 and state Route 94 as smoke drifted onto the freeway.

About 100 firefighters, with help from a helicopter, knocked down the vegetation fire quickly and contained it at less than an acre, said Battalion Chief John Thomson.